The present invention relates to an apparatus for rolling and wrapping harvested agricultural material into a cylindrical bale of roll configuration, the apparatus preferably comprising a mechanism that is adapted to be towed through a field and which defines a prechamber located adjacent the front of the apparatus for receiving harvested material that is picked up from the field, and a press region rearward of the prechamber, the periphery of the press region being defined by conveyor elements such as rotating rollers.
An apparatus of this general type has been described heretofore in German Offenlegungsschrift No. 2 740 299. The prechamber in this prior apparatus is defined by a front fixed wall and a rear pivotable wall. During normal operation, harvested material that is picked up is conveyed by a horizontal conveyor belt through an inlet orifice into the press region. At the same time, the rear pivotable wall of the prechamber is swung downward so as to form the upper boundary of the feed channel. The prechamber is intended to maintain an even flow of material during a wrapping operation and during ejection of the finished bale from the press region; and during the wrapping operation, the aforementioned rear pivotable wall of the prechamber is swung upwardly so that the incoming harvested material is no longer conveyed through the inlet orifice into the press region but, instead, is conveyed into the prechamber.
After the wrapping operation has been completed, the material located in the prechamber is intended to be delivered into the press region through the aforementioned inlet orifice. To accomplish this, the pivotable rear wall of the prechamber is swung downwardly. In practice, however, due to the particular construction which is employed in this prior apparatus, the harvested material tends to pile up in the region of the inlet orifice, i.e., the harvested material which has been collected in the prechamber does not discharge properly into the press chamber.
The object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus of the general type described above wherein, however, the apparatus is so arranged and constructed that material collected in the prechamber can be conveyed into the press region quickly and reliably, without pile-ups occurring during the feeding of the harvested agricultural material from the prechamber into the press region.